US officials say Trump has cast wider net for deportations

FILE - In this March 6, 2015, file photo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents enter an apartment complex looking for a specific undocumented immigrant convicted of a felony during an early morning operation in Dallas. The federal government provided Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, the most complete statistical snapshot of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump, showing Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year low while arrests by deportation officers soared. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

December 05, 2017 - 7:52 AM

WASHINGTON - The Latest on immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

A top immigration official says people living in the country illegally have good reason to be worried about getting deported under President Donald Trump.

Thomas Homan, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spoke Tuesday in Washington as the federal government announced that Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year-low in the last fiscal year while arrests by deportation officers soared.

Homan says the Trump administration has cast a wider net when picking up people for deportation.

The federal government has provided the most complete statistical snapshot of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year low while arrests by deportation officers soared.

Numbers released Tuesday show the Border Patrol made nearly 311,000 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 per cent from a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971. Despite the significant decline, arrests increased every month since May, largely families and unaccompanied children.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose officers pick up people for deportation away from the border, made more than 140,000 arrests, an increase of 25 per cent from a year earlier. After Trump took office, ICE arrests surged 40 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

OPINION The global food system is amazing. We have created a process that can put enormous diversity of food onto any plate in our province, assuming the plate will be sliding in front of someone who can afford to pay